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> In communist societies everyone had very similar income... Again we're reverting to the straw man of 100% (or nearly) equal society. Our society must be une

by danhak 11y ago

> In communist societies everyone had very similar income... Again we're reverting to the straw man of 100% (or nearly) equal society. Our society must be unequal to some extent because capital is a reasonable and effective reward for figuring out how to best allocate resources. But extreme inequality prevents a large % of the population from fully developing, exploring and disseminating their talents, shutting them out of this virtuous cycle altogether. You bring up Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Uber as examples of companies that succeeded on their merits. All four of those companies were started by straight white men with upper middle class upbringings. Do you believe that's a coincidence? Or are there some "lost Zuckerbergs" out there who never had a chance to fully explore computers when they were kids? Is a family's ability to afford the latest technology a material advantage for the next Zuckerberg / Gates / Brin / Page / Kalanick? In your original example, who is going to invent the next great space tech? Probably the kid whose family is buying a space station.

Pyxl101 11y ago
It's not a straw man. I'm not saying that any argument for income equality is tantamount to communism. I'm simply saying that you can have income equality and still lack a healthy business environment where ideas compete on merit. So the problem is whether ideas compete on merit, not income equality. Income equality is neither necessary nor sufficient for those other things. Regarding Brin, I don't think he has as privileged a background as you seem to believe. He had a pretty humble beginning, beginning with his birth in Soviet Russia (where his parents were discriminated against for being Jewish), after which he immigrated to USA at age 6: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin
- danhak 11y ago
  > I'm simply saying that you can have income equality and still lack a healthy business environment where ideas compete on merit. And I don't dispute that at all. What I am saying is that society's prosperity is optimized somewhere between total equality and extreme inequality, and that we seem to be drifting further away from that point.
bobby_9x 11y ago
What you really need to look at is how did they grow up?? A household that values education?? Plenty of immigrants from early 20th century that came to the US now have successful kids/grandkids because they valued education. Computers are now cheap and you can get lots of free knowledge on the Internet and at the library (MIT has free classes). There are no excuses. We need to stop with the victim mentality if we are ever going to progress.

by danhak 11y ago

Pyxl101 11y ago

It's not a straw man. I'm not saying that any argument for income equality is tantamount to communism. I'm simply saying that you can have income equality and still lack a healthy business environment where ideas compete on merit. So the problem is whether ideas compete on merit, not income equality. Income equality is neither necessary nor sufficient for those other things. Regarding Brin, I don't think he has as privileged a background as you seem to believe. He had a pretty humble beginning, beginning with his birth in Soviet Russia (where his parents were discriminated against for being Jewish), after which he immigrated to USA at age 6: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin

danhak 11y ago
> I'm simply saying that you can have income equality and still lack a healthy business environment where ideas compete on merit. And I don't dispute that at all. What I am saying is that society's prosperity is optimized somewhere between total equality and extreme inequality, and that we seem to be drifting further away from that point.

bobby_9x 11y ago

What you really need to look at is how did they grow up?? A household that values education?? Plenty of immigrants from early 20th century that came to the US now have successful kids/grandkids because they valued education. Computers are now cheap and you can get lots of free knowledge on the Internet and at the library (MIT has free classes). There are no excuses. We need to stop with the victim mentality if we are ever going to progress.